Word forming game board and playing pieces therefor



woRD FORMING GAME BOARD AND PLAYING PIECES 'LHEREFORl Filed June 22 1961 July 20, 1965 M. FRIEDMAN ETAL 2 Sheets-Shea*l 1 N r X D l l w O a O Z E I. v

n O Z E I mm QN N umooo oooo ooo oooooooooooooooo ooooo ooooooooooo mm ov om om Q Gm ON INVENTORS M. FRIEDMAN A. PERLMUTTER msnm ATTORNEY July 20, 1965 M. FRIEDMAN ETAL 3,195,893

WORD FORMING GAME BOARD AND 'PLAYING PIECES THEREFOR Filed June 22, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet2:

FIG. 2

INVENTORS M. FRIEDMAN A. PERLMUTTER ATTORNEY Milton Friedman, 119 Pitt Road,

United States Patent O 3,195,893 WORD FGNG GAME EGARD ANI) PLAYING PIECES THEREFOR and Alan Perlmutter, 120 Pitt Road, both of Springfield, NJ. Filed June 22, 1961, Ser. No. 118,871 2 Claims. (Cl. 273-130) This invention relates to a word-game device in which a game board is provided having a plurality of letters for spelling words and holders for positioning the letters in the game board until they are selectively removed by the players and inserted in a rack of the board for wordbuilding as the game progresses. The game board is further provided with indicia markings to designate the respective players and with penalty point markings in line with said player markings and with game pieces for use by the respective players in registering penalty points on the board.

Pursuant to the invention a plurality of players, for instance two or more, may use a game board embodying the invention, each player selectively picking one of a plurality of letter bearing game pieces disposed in holders and inserting such piece into a complementary center rack in the game board, the pieces being so inserted in turn by the players, the game thus continuing until one of the players by inserting a letter thus spells a word, for example a word beyond an initially agreed upon minimum number of letters. The person who thus spells the word will be penalized a number of points then registered on the game board, for example, one penalty unit per word or penalty units equal to the number of letters of the word thus spelled. Movable player markers are provided complementary to the penalty point markings on the board so that the player who has incurred a penalty of a given number of points may position his marker at the appropriate penalty point marking, the latter in turn being designated on the board in registry with the player indicia marking. Thus the game continues until one of the players incurs penalty points sufficient to eliminate him from the game, for example, penalty points of a given number of units, at the attainment of which an appropriate mark on the board indicates the elimination of that player, and the game continues until all but one player (the winner) has been eliminated.

In the drawings: u

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a word game board device embodying the invention,

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of tion marker used therewith,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a form of a letter bearing game piece which may be used in connection therewith,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged transverse sectional view of the a movable identificacenter rack portion of the game board, taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 1, showing a letter piece slidably positioned in the center rack,

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of a letter holder for use with the device of the invention,

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view of the letter holder portion of the game board device, taken on line 6-6 of FIG. 1, and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged vertical sectional view, taken at line 7--7 of FIG. 1.

As shown in the drawings, the device of this invention may be formed (FIGS. 4 and 6) of a pair of cardboard or other sheets 11, 12 which may be glued or otherwise secured together to define the gameboard as shown in FIG. l. One of the sheets may be cut away as shown at 13 (FIGS. l and 6) to enable the holder 14 (FIG. 5) for a plurality of letters to be secured to the game board 3,195,893 Patented July 20, 1965 ICC in the cutaway portion 13, for holding a plurality of letter bearing game pieces 15 to be selected by the players 1n playing the game. The holder 14 may comprise one or more sheets of suitable material 16 preformed as in FIGS. 5 and 6 to define the letter holding compartments 17 and longitudinal axial skirt portions 18 marginally defining the sides of the holder 14, which may be inserted as indicated at 19 (FIG. 6) intermediate sheets 11 and 12 adjacent the cutaway portion 13 of the board, for convenience of assembly. The letters 15 thus positioned in the holder 14 may be of a number and value to provide an adequate pool or reserve of letters from which the players may select the particular letters to be used by them in the playing of the game. The letter members may be marked as at 20 (FIG. 3) alphabetically. The game board is provided with a center rack portion 21 which may be formed (FIG. 4) with a cutaway shoulder portion 22 on the sheet 11 and cutaway portion 23 on the sheet 12 complementary to the cross section of letters 15 to slidably receive and hold the latter.

The players serially select the letter pieces 15 and insert them in this fashion in rack 21 until one of the players incurs a penalty by completing the spelling of a word (for example the player who inserted letter T or E in FIG. 1) according to the rules adopted by the players.

The game board device is provided with player indicia markings 25 disposed in a given line on the board 10 and with a corresponding plurality of movable player indicia markers 26 (FIG. 2) which are designed for use on (FIG. 7) penalty point lines 27 provided on the playboard in registry with the player indicia markings 25 thereon, to thus denote the penalties incurred by respective players. The penalty point lines 27 may comprise a plurality of recesses 28 and a plurality of calculation markings 30 (FIG. 1) therefor, the recesses 28 at said lines 27 to receive (FIG. 7) said player markers 26 to note the penalty scores of the players as incurred. The game thus continues until all but one player incur total score penalties 30 as noted by aggregate penalty point indicia markings 31 on the game board, eliminating said players. f

Having thus described the invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A Word-forming game for use by a plurality of players for serially selecting letters and positioning them in word building arrangement, comprising:

(a) a game board',

(b) a plurality of letter-bearing gamepieces to be serially selected by said players',

(c) holders for said gamepieces;

(d) said holders being integral across said game-board;

(e) a center rack extending across said game-board and open at each end for receiving the gamepieces serially therein for building a Word;

(f) a plurality of relatively closely spaced parallel scoring lines extending across said game-board above and parallel to said center rack to mark point penalties against players finalizing a word in the rack;

(g) a marker for each player;

(h) only a single scoring line for each player;

(i) complementary means on said scoring lines and said markers whereby said markers may be moved along said lines and retained in any position there- (j) indicia markings on said game-board in a single line parallel to said scoring lines to denote penalty points;

(k) player identifying indicia in a relatively vertical line adjacent the corresponding ends of the scoring lines;

with and extending n.3, t (1) sa'idjgamepieces and vsaid vcenter raek having corn- Y References Cited bythe Examiner plernental engeging surfa'ceskso that the gamepeces UNITED ATESPTNTS' are inserted within the rack at the open ends there- 1 Y of and areuheld in sliding" engagement therewith. 1981018 12/ 77 Harden 35;"35 X i 2. In theVworVd-forrning game asset'forth in claim l1,Y 5y 1,354910 '10/ 20 Kmhuml i wherein, y 'Y Y K y i Y V1,553,835 9/25 Peters.k t t (a) said complemental surfaces being provided by said 2,462,502 2/49V HOTWZ -7 7 35-71 X gamepieces being formed withY shoulder` portions and 'i 2,900,189' Y 8/59V YHowlett V273'-136 X said center rack havingl an .elongated corn'plernentalj 2,946,135, 7/60 Eickmeyer et a1. 35-31 X shoulder extending along the length thereof tore- 10 f v ceiveYand-vover'lie said gamepiece shouldered portions DELBERT B- ALOWE, Primary Examiner to provide forretenton of said'gamepiecesy in said JOHN'IVItIGRfmTY Exam-ner.

rack while permitting'sliding movement of said garnev l t Y pieces alongv said rack. t 'Y i 

1. A WORD-FORMING GAME FOR USE BY A PLURALITY OF PLAYERS FOR SERIALLY SELECTING LETTERS AND POSITIONING THEM IN WORD BUILDING ARRANGEMENT, COMPRISING: (A) A GAME BOARD; (B) A PLURALITY OF LETTER-BEARING GAMEPIECES TO BE SERIALLY SELECTED BY SAID PLAYERS; (C) HOLDERS FOR SAID GAMEPIECES; (D) SAID HOLDERS BEING INTEGRAL WITH AND EXTENDING ACROSS SAID GAME-BOARD; (E) A CENTER RACK EXTENDING ACROSS SAID GAME-BOARD AND OPEN AT EACH END FOR RECEIVING THE GAMEPIECES SERIALLY THEREIN FOR BUILDING A WORD; (F) A PLURALITY OF RELATIVELY CLOSED SPACED PARALLEL SCORING LINES EXTENDING ACROSS SAID GAME-BOARD ABOVE AND PARALLEL TO SAID CENTER RACK TO MARK POINT PENALTIES AGAINST PLAYERS FINALIZING A WORD IN THE RACK; (G) A MARKER FOR EACH PLAYER; (H) ONLY A SINGLE SCORING LINE FOR EACH PLAYER; (I) COMPLEMENTARY MEANS ON SAID SCORING LINES AND SAID MARKERS WHEREBY SAID MARKERS MAY BE MOVED ALONG SAID LINES AND RETAINED IN ANY POSITION THEREON; (J) INDICIA MARKINGS ON SAID GAME-BOARD IN A SINGLE LINE PARALLEL TO SAID SCORING LINES TO DENOTE PENALTY POINTS; (K) PLAYER IDENTIFYING INDICIA IN A RELATIVELY VERTICAL LINE ADJACENT THE CORRESPONDING ENDS OF THE SCORING LINES; (L) SAID GAMEPIECES AND SAID CENTER RACK HAVING COMPLEMENTAL ENGAGING SURFACES SO THAT THE GAMEPIECES ARE INSERTED WITHIN THE RACK AT THE OPEN ENDS THEREOF AND ARE HELD IN SLIDING ENGAGEMENT THEREWITH. 